Durugordon still looking for first win with Saints
BUFFALO — Sean Durugordon made Siena men’s basketball history on Friday night, but it happened during another loss.
Despite his best efforts, scoring a career-high 30 points and grabbing 12 rebounds, the Saints fell 6763 at Canisius for their eighth consecutive loss.
Durugordon, a redshirt junior guard who became eligible five games ago, is the first player in Siena’s Division I era to score 20 or more points in each of his first five career games for the Saints.
“Like, I’ve been in the gym when I wasn’t playing and I know what I can do,” Durugordon said. “It’s no surprise to me.”
But it’s been a long time since Durugordon tasted victory. His teams have lost the last 15 games in which he’s played, including his final 10 appearances for Austin Peay last season before transferring to Siena.
“We’ve just got to stay positive,” Durugordon said. “There’s always next game. There’s always another opportunity. It only takes that one dub (win) to turn stuff around, so we’ve just got to stay locked in and we’ve just got to keep our heads up.”
Siena (2-13 overall, 1-3 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) plays at noon Monday at Niagara (7-8, 3-2). The game was postponed from Sunday because of the forecast of a major snowstorm in Erie County. The Saints will try to snap their longest losing streak since dropping 11 straight during the 2012-13 season. While Durugordon shot 11-for-19 from the field on Friday, the rest of the Saints were 11-for-41 (26.8 percent). Sophomore guard Michael Eley, Siena’s other big perimeter scoring threat, had seven points on 3-for-11 from the field. He grimaced and touched the back of his leg repeatedly after scoring one basket, but remained in the game.
Eley has scored 15 points in his past two games after pouring in a
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career-high 30 at UMass.
“I thought Mike was really good tonight,” Siena coach Carmen Maciariello said Friday. “He turned down some shots. I thought he was unselfish. I thought he was sharing it. I thought there were some times where he probably could have taken it, and he didn’t, but he made the extra passes. He was unselfish. He defended. He rebounded. So I was happy with his effort. We still haven’t had everybody firing on all cylinders yet, which is our job to get done. We’ve got to keep these guys going.”
Maciariello gave sophomore guard Mason Courtney his fourth career start and he responded with 12 points, including a 3-pointer that briefly put Siena ahead with 5:18 left. Courtney started in place of point guard Zek Tekin, who came off the bench and scored seven points with four assists.
“He’s (Courtney) been so consistent in practice,” Maciariello said. “And then I thought, you know, able to get Zek in there to give us some energy and push the ball, also kind of let him see what ballscreen coverage was going to be, how the game was going, and so then for
Jim Franco/Times Union stretches when we made our run, I had those guys in there together.”
Courtney, a walk-on from Shenendehowa, was just one point off his career high against Central Michigan.
“I just practice every day, and whatever coaches think is the best chance for us to win, I’m going to do that, regardless of what it is,” Courtney said.
Maciariello told his team he was proud they won the rebounding battle 39-36 over Canisius after trailing 22-13 on the boards at halftime.
“I think that’s kind of what got us back in the game,” he said. “We were getting some stops. Like I said, there’s no moral victories. This is Siena basketball and we have to keep working.”
Siena’s defensive effort improved on Friday, holding Canisius to 40.4 percent from the field and 4of-14 from 3-point range. Despite pregame conjecture the Saints would play more zone defense, the Saints mostly stuck to Maciariello’s preferred man-to-man with some switching against Canisius.
Now they’ll face Niagara, which erupted in a 9672 win over Fairfield on Friday night. The Purple Eagles put five scorers in double figures, shot 61.8 percent and made 10 of 15 3-pointers.
The Purple Eagles have won four straight, winning on the road at Buffalo, Manhattan and Iona before beating Fairfield.